UM coaches, UMB doctors among state's highest earners

The coaches for University of Maryland, College Park's football and men's and women's basketball teams were the state's three highest-paid public employees last year, continuing a long-standing trend.

Bucking the notion of low-paid college professors, of the top 200 most highly compensated state employees in 2013, the vast majority are professors, administrators and coaches at UM, as well as doctors and professors at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. A few in the top 200 are University System of Maryland officials, administrators and presidents and coaches at other colleges.

In the case of coaches, university officials are quick to point out that much of their compensation can come from sources other than the state, such as partnerships, camps and media appearances.

Terps men's basketball coach Mark Turgeon, the state's highest-compensated employee in 2013, made about $2.2 million, with less than $500,000 of that coming from the state. Terps football coach Randy Edsall and women's basketball coach Brenda Frese both took home about $400,000 from state coffers, but other income pushed their compensation to about $2.1 million and $1 million, respectively.

UMB doctors also were among the state's most highly compensated employees, including Bartley Griffith, a professor of surgery at the University of Maryland School of Medicine ($893,000); Stephen T. Bartlett, chairman of the department of surgery at the university medical school ($864,000); and E. Albert Reece, the medical school's vice president for medical affairs ($813,000). As with the coaches, some of their compensation comes from outside sources.

UMB President Jay Perman, the seventh-most-highly paid state employee in 2013, is also the state's most highly paid public college president, making $812,000 in 2013 — more than university system Chancellor William E. Kirwan ($518,000) and College Park President Wallace D. Loh ($476,000).

"The Board of Regents tries to find a middle ground where we try to be responsible and effective, but on the other hand, we want to be positioned to where we can recruit the best leaders in the country," University System of Maryland spokesman Mike Lurie said.

Lurie said Perman's salary takes into account that he still works as a physician. UMB spokesman Alex Likowski said Perman, in addition to his presidential duties, holds a weekly clinic in pediatric gastroenterology with patients, in which students observe and participate.

Also in the top 200 were several former university and college presidents: Joseph R. Urgo, who resigned as president of St. Mary's College of Maryland last summer; Earl Richardson, who left as president of Morgan State University in 2008 and made nearly $350,000 as a president emeritus last year; and former College Park President C.D. "Dan" Mote, who stepped down in 2010 and earned more than $300,000 in 2013.

Urgo, the former St. Mary's president, took home $501,225 in compensation in 2013. Urgo asked the St. Mary's board of trustees not to renew his contract when it expired in June 2013 amid concerns over falling enrollment. In 2012, he made an annual salary of $372,311. St. Mary's spokeswoman Arminta Stanfield said Urgo received a payout of 70 percent of his annual salary at the end of his contract.

Morgan State spokesman Clint Coleman said Richardson, the former president, earns 80 percent of his former salary as a tenured faculty member, teaching one class in the School of Education. Coleman pointed out that Richardson's arrangement is similar to that of other former university presidents who remain faculty members.

Mote remains on the faculty of College Park's School of Engineering as a professor, according to the school's website.